A digital touch here and a there is not the way to go, an IBM general manager told finews.asia, describing it as «random acts of digital.» Banks need to overhaul the way they behave, he said.
Some of the challenges financial institutions face include scaling the use of exponential tech like AI, machine learning, Internet of Things and cloud, extending beyond proof of concepts and «random acts of digital,» said Arun Biswas, general manager, IBM Global Business Services, in conversation with finews.asia.
«The banks' first objective is to use technology to get to know their customers better and make themselves more relevant to their customers,» he explained. «The second is to use technology to streamline their workflows, improve efficiency and reduce cost and the third, use technology to manage risk and comply with regulation.»
But the ultimate headwind is, of course, behavioral.
«The next challenge is in changing the culture, mindset and ways of working. Then they want to know how to fundamentally re-architect their infrastructure and modernize their applications by leveraging the power of hybrid cloud.»
Embedding AI
Competitive advantage for enterprises in the next era depends on their ability to reimagine, modernize and assure. But many of them face challenges including siloed low-quality data, a lack of talent, and skepticism about AI's current and potential capabilities.
«Innovation at the front end has outpaced development at the back end. Your future depends on being data first and data-driven, and on your ability to scale this,» IBM Asia Pacific CEO and chairman Harriet Green said in her keynote at THINK, IBM’s flagship global conference, held in Singapore for the first time on Wednesday.
According to Green, to be «truly cognitive,» firms need to embed AI across the whole enterprise by combining it with data to come up with workflows. Firms must also modernize by moving from experimentation to transformation in terms of becoming open, flexible and secure.
And finally, trust will be the «differentiator of the future» as realizing these possibilities requires a «total commitment to trust and stewardship» to technology's impact on the world and on data and security.
